You learn something new everyday. That was very interesting to learn, so thank you, Aura. I would assume Mrs. Sunderland has passed on as well, since I am pretty sure that it is a law in these games that all spouses must be dead before the game starts.

Until now, I had only seen the ending with the fog intact. Even at max resolution on a big screen TV, James and Laura walk along through the boneyard and vanish into the mist, separated by some distance. However, I recently saw a redoing of "Leave" with the fog removed. In it, James and Laura go through the cemetery separated, then Laura waits at the entrance for James to catch up. This suggests that they did indeed leave together. I think it also suggests that Laura had her own encounter with Mary, given the apparent absence of any hostility on her part.

Of course, it can be argued that if someone can digitally erase the fog, they could digitally alter other things as well; they could have James and Laura dress up in Disney Princess outfits (I think James would look very fetching dressed like Snow White) and sing "Once Upon a Dream" if they wanted. So the "leaving separately" theory still holds some water.

Thanks for the link. I agree that the idea of them going their separate ways still stands. Even if they went through the exit together, they could have parted at the gate, or he still could have dropped her off. It is still cool to see it without the fog.

Just did my latest playthrough of SH2, and my first time in full stereo. Never appreciated the true genius of whoever created all of those sounds... I was on edge for most of the game, even though I'd played it before.

I think that the biggest obstacle to Jamesie adopting Laura do not lie in the logistics of how it could be done. Illegally, it's just a matter of them disappearing and resurfacing somewhere else: America's a big frickin' country, with no borders and plenty of small communities where no one asks too many questions. Even doing it legally (were such a thing within canon) would not be insurmountable. Kids over a certain age are not as much in demand, so it might be possible for an unmarried individual to adopt a child who is unlikely to appeal to a couple.

No, the reason I tend to subscribe to the "James takes Laura to safety and drops her off there" hypothesis is a matter of relationship. Or, more precisely, lack thereof. Mary loved Laura as if she was her own daughter, it's true. James loved Mary, it's equally true. But James and Laura presumably spent very little time together. They had no affinity for each other, made evident by Laura's disagreeable behavior early on. Even as the story wore on, Laura might have mellowed a bit, but I really think that was more because she and James were (in a sense) united by a common cause. Laura thought that James might be able to find Mary when she wasn't. He was, after all, a grown-up. Once it was established that James could not get her back to Mary, Laura had no further interest in being with him.

Yes, I believe that both James and Mary had their final encounter with Mary. She refuted James's belief that he killed Mary because he "hated" her (his actions were due to grief, weariness, and frustration; she knew this). She told him to go on with his life. I like to think that she allowed Laura to climb up in her lap, held her close, told her she loved her, and then pretty much told the girl to carry on with her life as well. She probably told her why James did what he did, then told her to go with him, that he would get her to safety. That encounter was enough to get Laura to leave town with James, and to end the hostilities between them. However, the fact that the two of them had no real relationship remained.

Now, is this issue an insurmountable one? No. If James could be made to take his mind off himself, and Laura could be induced to see James in a different light, the two of them could very easily work their issues out. In my own story, "Leaving Silent Hill", this occurred (due in part to a dose of deus ex machina in the form of a concealed gravestone). However, I am not one to confuse wishful thinking on my part to what is most likely to occur.

Actually, it wouldn't have been that hard for him. I have personal experience with this.

I don't want to go into all the weird details, but I call myself "adopted," but really my parents were asked by my biological mom to raise me when I was young, and they took me in. I got sick shortly after I moved in with them, and managed to get medical treatment, and enroll in school. Anyone important who might have been the sort of person you worry about being suspicious just took their explanation at face value and treated them like they were legally my parents, even though we have never had any kind of legal relationship. I think it goes with that whole acting guilty thing, like that guy who decided to break into his car in the middle of the day, and since he was pretty calm about the whole thing, people figured he must have gotten locked out or something, and even offered him help.

He could honestly just move to a sleepy little town with her and call her his daughter and it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal. Whether or not Laura would want that is another thing, but they probably could. He could probably just give them something vague, like her parents died and he's caring for her, and people would just think him a very kind man and leave it at that.

I like to think that if the Leave ending occurs, he'd care for Laura, just because I kind of like how in the endings where he lives, he takes something very major with him, be it his presumably zombified wife in the Rebirth ending, Maria in the Maria ending, or Laura in the Leave ending. It's just nicely parallel.

Consider the following, for what it's worth. There are five James/Laura encounters in the game, six if "Leave" is attained. This is my interpretation of them.

The first: Very unfriendly. Laura lashes out at James without provocation. She dislikes him very much because of her belief that he doesn't love Mary. She's been given no reason to believe she can't find Mary herself, so why bother with James?

The second: Unfriendly. Laura is verbally hostile to James, still having no use whatsoever for him. She is maybe a bit confused that he doesn't recognize her, but is too hostile to really care.

The third: Initially neutral (maybe Laura has started to wonder if she can find Mary alone after all), but James provokes Laura's ire when he falsely accuses her of being a liar. We know how that turns out.

The fourth: Surprisingly friendly, and I think I know why. Laura has never liked James, but he's still a grown-up. Laura's 8, and at that age kids still tend to trust that grown-ups (even ones they dislike) can do things that they can't. She wants to find Mary, and believes that maybe James can do what she has proven unable to thus far. Laura is prepared to make an alliance of convenience.

The fifth: Initially friendly enough; Laura is still hoping James can aid her in reaching her goal. This ends abruptly when James tells her what happened. An angry, grief-stricken Laura leaves the room.

The last: It is quite likely (but not certain) that Laura has had her own encounter with Mary, since it is unlikely that she would allow James within a quarter mile of her otherwise. They leave the town in the same direction at the same time. Are they leaving separately or together? If the latter, will James take her to safety or take her with him? There is not enough evidence to answer that question (the "fog-free" video has them leave together, but we have to wonder if modded versions of game endings are canonical).

What happens with James and Laura in the end hinges on:

1. Whether Laura met with Mary afterward, and the nature of that encounter.2. What transpired when James, after defeating the Maria boss and accepting reality, met up with Laura again.

Hey, hate to bring this back since it's been like three years, but I met Guy Cihi in person in 2015 and never got to ask him his opinion on this. So, today I decided to message him over on Facebook, and he said:

"In the Leave ending, James finds partial redemption by fulfilling Mary's dying request to adopt and care for Laura.

When she turns 18, Laura receives a letter in the mailbox... She leaves home without a word. James is devastated to learn what has happened. He pulls an old metal box out from under a floorboard, takes out a pistol and a old map, and sets off for Silent Hill."

Of course, this is just his personal opinion, but I still find it really interesting and it does fit my own personal headcanon . Oh, and if any of you guys want proof, I can PM you some screenshots!

Hey, hate to bring this back since it's been like three years, but I met Guy Cihi in person in 2015 and never got to ask him his opinion on this. So, today I decided to message him over on Facebook, and he said:

"In the Leave ending, James finds partial redemption by fulfilling Mary's dying request to adopt and care for Laura.

When she turns 18, Laura receives a letter in the mailbox... She leaves home without a word. James is devastated to learn what has happened. He pulls an old metal box out from under a floorboard, takes out a pistol and a old map, and sets off for Silent Hill."

Of course, this is just his personal opinion, but I still find it really interesting and it does fit my own personal headcanon . Oh, and if any of you guys want proof, I can PM you some screenshots!

I know, LOL. I literally said so in my post. I still think it's interesting insight, especially from someone directly involved with SH2. And by directly, I don't mean the writing or anything that imperative; but as a voice actor he did need to understand his character well.

I know, LOL. I literally said so in my post. I still think it's interesting insight, especially from someone directly involved with SH2. And by directly, I don't mean the writing or anything that imperative; but as a voice actor he did need to understand his character well.

I like the idea he gives, I wish it was absolutely true that would be cool, but I don't think he really knows either if that happens or not.

I know, LOL. I literally said so in my post. I still think it's interesting insight, especially from someone directly involved with SH2. And by directly, I don't mean the writing or anything that imperative; but as a voice actor he did need to understand his character well.

I like the idea he gives, I wish it was absolutely true that would be cool, but I don't think he really knows either if that happens or not.

Well, hopefully we will get some answers someday! As much as I love to theorize, it would be nice to at least get vague answers to some of our questions.

EDIT: Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone and all your responses, I really appreciated all the differing points of view

Regarding what Guy Cihi said about a "possible" continuation of the story, wouldn't it be awesome if we'd see an older version of James (going with the "Leave" ending) dreading the fact that he has to return to Silent Hill to look for Laura?

If you think about it, we've never had a return so far - with the whole fighting-your-own-monsters deal - and the game's title could be catchy too: "Return to Silent Hill"

Then again, it is reminiscent of Heather's story. Just a bit. Just the POV differs.